In contrast to retailing on the Internet, brick and mortar retail stores generally accept product returns at the retail location from which the products are purchased and/or at an affiliated retail location. Upon returning their unwanted purchases, either to a sales or consumer service counter, consumers generally expect to immediately receive cash or a credit for their returns.
Upon receiving such a return, retailers typically assess the condition of the returned item and either put it back on the shelf for resale or, for products that are defective or inappropriate for retail sale, the returned items may be aggregated in a stock room until enough products are accumulated to justify a bulk shipment to a centralized return center. At the centralized return center, the condition of the returned products are typically again evaluated and subsequently routed to an appropriate destination such as an outlet store, manufacturer, landfill, etc. In such a scenario, multiple shipments and redundant return processes for the same individual item are common, thereby adding to the cost of product returns for participants in a retail channel.
With the addition of another costly shipping step at the beginning of the procedure, this procedure is generally the same for catalog retailers. While catalog retailers continue to sell products around the nation and around the world, electronic commerce via the Internet is expanding the practice of remote sales and purchases of products at a phenomenal pace. Due to the fact that a vast majority of electronic commerce sites are not equipped with brick and mortar counterparts, many electronic commerce sites and their consumers are likely to experience limitations associated with current methods of returning remotely purchased products.
The advent of Internet retailing has produced a new retail channel. However, product return processes associated with many Internet retailers are generally similar to the process for catalog retailers mentioned above. In the absence of brick and mortar counterparts, consumers of many Internet retailers are often required to ship products to an Internet retailer's designated location for return. From there, the costly process of shipping and handling returned products back through the retail channel continues similar to traditional brick and mortar retailers. Currently, Internet and catalog retailers continue to use traditional, inefficient product return processes that involve the aggregation of returned products as well as the use of multiple shipping and handling steps before final disposition.